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Samenvatting Physical Geography and the Environment
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Samenvatting: ‘’An Introduction to Physical Geography and the Environment’’Chapter 1; Approaching physical geography:
Because geography was inextricably linked to exploration, patriotism and colonization that it was
considered an important subject by society of the time, geographers were making the key advances
in discovering new lands, mapping them, changing people’s perception of the shape and size of
features of the earth and bringing potential wealth to nations that conquered and colonized others.
Uniformitarianism is that present day processes that we can observe should be used to inform our
understanding of the past processes that we can’t observe, in other words what we observe today
was probably also the case in history.
Also Darwin’s theory had some influence on the perspective of the geographers for example Davis
with his davisian cycles of erosion, this cycle could be uses to classify any landscape according to the
stage that it had reached in the erosion cycle, and also determine an age of that landscape, this is
called denudation chronology.
The 1950s are often referred to as the quantitative revolution, geography was driven away from
description and towards measurement.
Causal inference is the idea that every event has some sort of cause and so causal inference is the
process by which we links observations under this assumption
Positivism is to stick to what we can observe/measure and ensure that science was separated from
religious explanations for phenomena. It uses repeatable research methods so that the same tests
can be performed again. There are 2 sorts of positivism approach:
Logical: inductive reasoning whereby knowledge in defined, measured and classified, then the
regularities might be discovered and they can prove a law so experiment is used to gain knowledge.
Critical: deductive reasoning whereby you start with an theory that leads to an hypotheses, you will
test your hypotheses and try to disprove it. But after this you can only say that is has not been
disproved not that it is true
Critiques: there is always an human-being involved, because the experiments are repeatable this
means it is simplified so irregularities are ignored, they don’t take regional context into account. By
measuring you may influence the results and not everything is measurable.
A phenomena can be structured in 3 ways: a mechanism, an event or an empirical observation.
Mechanisms are underlying processes, which might cause an event (if all factors are right) and the
events van be empirically observed (by human). Proxy measures are measures that are based on
present evidence of past conditions
There are 4 types of modelling: conceptual, statistical, probabilistic, deterministic
Conceptual models express the ideas about how processes in a system work, statistical models are
used where data has been collected that allow relationships to be statistically established and then
predictions can be made, probabilistic models assume that there is some sort of random behaviour
that is part of the system and assign a likelihood to events or data (a 95% probability for example),
Deterministic models assume there is only one possible result known for each alternative course or
action A number of stages of development of these numerical models can be found on page 20!
Chapter 2; Earth geology and tectonics:
, The outer parts of the mantle along with the overlying crust is called the lithosphere and is rigid, this
floats on the more mobile asthenosphere.
For full structure of the earth, I redirect you to figure 2,1 on page 30!
The boundary between the crust and the mantle is called the ‘’Mohorovicic discontinuity’’ (Moho)
The difference between the average elevation of the continents and the oceans is determined
principally by differences in thickness and density of the crusts. This is called isostasy
There are 3 types of rocks: igneous-, sedimentary- and metamorphic rocks
Igneous rocks are formed from molten rock which cool and hardens
Sedimentary rock are formed from the products of chemical/physical weathering of rock exposed at
the earth’s surface. The sediment produced from such weathering can accumulate over time and
eventually build up a deposit which, over time, can harden to rock.
Metamorphic rock form as a result of partial melting and recrystallization of existing sedimentary or
igneous rocks. These changes usually take place where there is also high pressure such as under
hundreds of metres of bedrock or where rock is crushed at the junction of tectonic plates.
Over time all rock types can convert into other forms and this has often been termed as the rock
cycle. Igneous and sedimentary rocks can become metamorphic rocks under pressure and heat. All
rock types can erode to form the layers of sediment that can eventually become sedimentary rocks,
and all rocks can be completely melted. When molten rock eventually cools and hardens at or near
the earth’s surface it will form igneous rock.
A wide range of evidence, apart from the fit of continents across the Atlantic, was advanced to
support the theory of continental drift. Rare, identical fossils were found in rocks on different
continents, now separated by ocean. Also indications of glaciers and mountain belts were found on
both continents which are now separated.
Also the understanding of bathymetry has contributed to this, bathymetry means that the middle of
the ocean isn’t the deepest part of it. Palaeomagnetism was also an indicator, when the fluid rocks
hardens all the magnetic parts are pointing to the north pole, because the magnetic pole isn’t stable
a bar code can be read.
Also the investigation of earthquakes led to new theories as well as the ocean drilling programme,
they have found that the ocean wasn’t older than 200 million years, which indicates tectonics.
Divergent plate boundaries, moving apart, new lithosphere is created
Convergent plate boundaries moving towards each other, can lead to subduction zones, when one
plate slide under the other, or mountain belts, when they collide.
Transform is sliding past each other causing earthquakes
The upward moving limbs of convection cells are called plumes or hot spots, the motion of these
convection cells move the plates by viscous forces dragging the base of the lithosphere.
The axis of the mid-ocean ridge consists of a central (rift) valley or graben also shield volcanoes are
found here, gentle slopes, basalt lava (very runny and in huge amounts) when the lava cools
underwater this forms structures called pillow lavas. Ophiolites are mid-ocean ridges above sea-level.
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